Chapter 13

"Stop dodging like a coward and take it like a man." The queen shouted.

"Sorry but I don't think any man would like to be blown to pieces," Shukaku replied nonchalantly. Suddenly he stopped and pointed behind the girl.

Yubelluna felt dread filling up her as she slowly looked back.

There was a huge hand purely made of sand right behind her.

Before she could point her staff at the sand arm, it grabbed her and then slammed her to the ground. Then it picked her up again and slammed one more time. Yubelluna used some small explosions to loosen its hold. She was desperately trying to get out of the hand's grip seeing that the hand was going to slam her again. She wouldn't survive another hit like that. A few more explosions and the arm dissolved.

She was badly injured but she still had Phoenix Tears. With a shaky breath, she went for the vial but,

"Just because your opponent is in front of you, you shouldn't disregard your surroundings." A voice whispered and before she could retort, Shukaku struck her neck, knocking her out.

"I hope I wasn't too rough." Shukaku grabbed Yubelluna and landed gracefully holding the woman in bridal style. But a second later, she disappeared.

"Riser-sama's queen has retired."

The Knight looked up to see a fire, shaped like a bird was heading toward the town hall.

"Guess it is going to end soon."

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Ravel was surprised when she heard every member of her brother's peerage had retired.

"You cannot beat me; the firepower of Phenex family is one of the superior fire types of magic. Your ice magic will not stand a chance." Ravel said as her fire was increasing and almost every building near her was lit on fire.

"If it was anyone else that it would have worked but unfortunately my lady," Haku's cheerful tone was replaced with a serious one, "My ice powers come from my Longinus, 'Absolute Demise'."

Haku pointed at Ravel and whispered, "Eternal ice prison."

And with that Ravel was trapped between really thick pillars of ice, the space where she was confined was so congested that she could barely move properly. She kept using her fire powers; although the fire was melting the ice bit by bit, it was getting restored again at an incredible speed.

"Please retreat, your brother has already lost and you know it," Haku said gently but Ravel shook her head,

"No brother can still win, he will beat your king directly!" Ravel shouted.

"Then go back and watch the fight yourself, if you do that I promise you that I will not interfere with their fight." Haku released the ice prison.

Ravel looked at Haku for some time. She wasn't arrogant like her brother and was more level-minded so she knew that she was beaten. And she also knew that if all of Haruto's peerages would go after her brother altogether, he would lose.

But if this guy doesn't fight maybe my brother will still have a chance. His ice Longinus will cause troubles for him. Guess this is the choice right now. Ravel thought internally. After that, she huffed and turned around, "You better keep your promise."

With that, she teleported out after that, because she knew that was the best she could as a strategist.

"Riser-sama's last bishop has retired."

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Everyone was looking at the screen with utter disbelief,

All the devils were whispering as they were awed to witness the sheer might of Haruto's peerages.

Riser was one of the rising stars in rating games. His record was good and one of the main reasons he was becoming popular in the rating matches was the way he could use his peerages. Yes, all of them were girls and they looked more like his bedroom partners than actual fighters but there was no denying that Riser truly earned his victories. His members were disciplined, they knew teamwork and few of them were quite powerful, Yubelluna, Karlamine and then his own sister, Ravel.

But what everyone just saw now, totally blew away all their minds. Now, they could understand why Haruto's members were acting like their hearts weren't in this fight, because they really weren't. To them, Riser's peerage members weren't worth the effort.

"I thought that the tanuki masked guy was a knight," Rias asked, particularly no one as everyone was as confused and surprised as him.

"He used earth magic with such proficiency." Tsubaki kept blinking.

"A knight who uses magic to fight, another knight who can take down enemies without them knowing, a bishop with a magic type Longinus and finally a beast tamer, this Haruto really knows how to pick his comrades?" Sairaorg grinned.

"Yah, to think that he got a beast tamer." Sona looked at Sakura critically.

"What is a beast tamer?" Issei asked, looking around.

"Simply put Issei, it is similar to evil pieces but instead of reincarnating other beings to serve you, a beast tamer makes supernatural monsters to assist them, mainly through contract," Rias explained, but before she could elaborate further.

"The main match is going to start," Sairaorg said as his eyes were glued to the screen, refusing to let a single moment pass by him.

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The place exploded as the bright orange fire spread around and started to burn everything down. And it was only the beginning as the fire slowly enveloped the whole village. In just mere minutes the whole village was on fire.

"One of Haruto-sama's pawns has retired."

Riser's lips reached from ear to ear when he heard the announcement. His mad grin soon turned to wild laughter but it stopped completely when Haruto came out from the fire, unharmed and uninterested.

Cracking his neck, Haruto looked up, "Wipe that smirk of yours, I sent away Asia before the explosion even occurred."

Riser gritted his teeth but soon composed himself. He was arrogant but not stupid. Even he knew that if all of Haruto's peerage members ganged up on him, he might lose. So his only assured way of winning was to aim for a one on one match with Haruto. Cause in this "Rating Game' all was over the moment the king was defeated. With that in mind, Riser spoke in a taunting voice as he looked down at Haruto, "I have to admit, I didn't think an amateur like you would have such strong servants, and beautiful ones too. An innocent looking nun and especially that girl with the sexy bondage outfit. Woof I wonder how they will taste like?" He said in a manner as if he was going to have them whether Haruto liked it or not.

Haruto knew Riser was riling him up but unfortunately for him, it worked. Because right then and there he changed his plan on how to defeat the lustful arrogant Phenex. Not knowing his agonizing fate, Riser continued, "Doesn't matter, when I finish you it will be over anyway. Maybe they might come to me when they see how superior I am compared to you." Rias extended one of his arms and huge amounts of fire advanced toward Haruto, who simply just took out one sword and grinned,

"Samehada."

Haruto's new sword was the size of a "Greatsword" but the entire blade part of it was wrapped in bandages. The moment the fire got near Haruto, he used the sword to slice through the fire while a huge amount of it was absorbed into the sword.

Riser actually blinked not because of what Haruto did to his fire but because for a moment he thought he saw the sword … wiggling.

"Wow, he likes your energy." Haruto chuckled, it was a dry and hollow laugh. He knew he was losing it … his sanity … but it was feeling so good.

Riser, not knowing what was going on Haruto's mind, was fuming in anger. He circled around Haruto and started throwing a huge amount of fires, fires that were burning everything around them to ashes except Haruto. He was just swinging that huge sword of his with one hand, and with each swipe, the sword somehow seemed to get bigger, bit by bit.

Seeing that long-range attacks weren't working, Riser went for the second option. He covered both of his hands with scorching flames and then he went flying straight at Haruto, fully intending to strangle him with his own two hands.

If Riser would have looked carefully, he would have noticed the vicious glint in Haruto's eyes.

The sword's bandage from the top came off all of a sudden. There was no sharp metal but a deep cut onto the top visible part of the sword. The moment Riser was where Haruto wanted him to be, the thick cut line of the sword opened up showing what it truly was, a mouth with sharp teeth. And Riser's one hand went directly inside that mouth.

Crunch.

"ARGH!" Riser's scream echoed throughout the burning village.

He looked at the sword with wide and shaky eyes, though he was still screaming.

He was a phenex, a clan of devils who were as close to attaining immortality as they could get because of their regeneration prowess. And he boosted up his regeneration abilities taking the effectiveness up a few notches. So that was why he never really got hurt that bad. Even when he lost a few of his fights, it was because he was strategically beaten or his magic was completely exhausted.

But never once was he badly injured.

But this,

The pain was excruciating.

The pain of his arm being slowly eaten, right in front of his very eyes; and the worst part was that for some reason his regeneration was not working. No, he could feel his regeneration working but it was too slow.

"Surprised?" Haruto smiled like a child who just got a candy; a pure and innocent smile. He closed his eyes and smiled wider when Riser screamed again, "Why not let me explain?"

"Riser, you are immortal as long as your dark clan energy flows throughout your body." Haruto started explaining nonchalantly while Riser was screaming his lungs out, "But unfortunately for you, my Samehada eats any type of dark energy. So right now when your body is sending your special energy to your arm but my Samehada is eating it before your arm could use that energy to regenerate, hence your painful experience. "

But Riser's mind couldn't comprehend anything since Haruto's cheerful voice was overshadowed by his anguished scream.